CR2 record card

This card was introduced in 1913 and phased out in 1941.

This card was usually completed in a port mercantile office and contains information on when an individual signed on for a particular foreign voyage. It includes brief details on the individual, his Discharge A number, identifies the ship and the port mercantile office date stamp.

The cards issued up until September 1918 are missing and are thought to be destroyed.

There were changes made to the card in September 1918 . The discharge A number was replaced with the new RS2 number. This allowed foreign voyage details to be entered on to the new CR10 card before the CR2 card was discarded. When the CR10 card was dropped in December 1921 the CR2 card reverted to using the Discharge A number as the identifier.

If a man made ten foreign voyages then ten separate CR2 cards would be created. In practice, it appears that only one CR2 card was kept, with the other nine voyages detail handwritten on the back of the card.

This card was phased out in 1941 at the time of the Bevin reorganisation described elsewhere. The new CRS10 card which was an update on the CR10 card from1918 used the crew lists and agreements to give the voyage details.

CR2 cards can be found in:

BT348:- for those men who had left the sea by 1941

BT364:- for those men who were active in 1941 but subsequently left the sea